


Nominal Importance

by Lumelle



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Character Bashing, M/M, Nicknames, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-12
Updated: 2011-05-12
Packaged: 2017-10-19 07:35:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/198469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumelle/pseuds/Lumelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dino is not like Reborn, and doesn't particularly want to be. When Kyouya sets out to gain a name for himself, it's time for his tutor to grow up as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nominal Importance

**Author's Note:**

> Not recommended for fans of Reborn (the character).

It was, Dino supposed, all his fault.

Okay, not all of it, perhaps. He had not been the one who had brought about the situation at hand, not the one who talked all around the mafia nor one of those who seemed not to understand their own best. However, he had been the one who had brought the issue to Kyouya's attention, however teasing a manner he had adopted about the matter. If nothing else, he should have known better. After all, he knew Kyouya very well by now. It should not have surprised him that the young man would always take the path of most destruction.

Nevertheless, he had never imagined that pointing out the fact that most people knew him just as the Vongola Cloud Guardian and not by his own name would have results quite this drastic in nature. Anger, sure. Perhaps even running off to hit things that may or may not have been able to hit him back, why not. But this... was quite beyond all his imagination.

The first reports had been bad enough. Kyouya had vanished off their radar, his whereabouts only traceable through random bursts of activity as he made an attack here, another there. He'd been on the run for several days, now, driving both Vongola and Cavallone to the limits of their resources as they tried to keep track of his movements and anticipate the next one. Unless they found him soon, Dino feared, he would end up in more trouble than even he could handle. And if that happened, Dino would never forgive himself.

"What do you mean, you haven't been able to locate him?" The men in front of him took a step back. He couldn't blame them for appearing afraid. They had every reason to be, after all. He'd given them a task and they had failed to accomplish it. Yes, he was mad.

"We're doing our best, Boss!" one of them squeaked. "We've got men out monitoring every possible target he might strike. It's just, unless he does something –"

"Unless he does something, he won't be found. Yes, I know." Dino frowned, his anger ebbing away somewhat. Kyouya was not an easy person to track. He knew it very well by now. However, it didn't make it any less frustrating when he wanted to, no, needed to know where his student had gone, yet had no way of finding him.

Kyouya was his student. His responsibility. If something happened to him because he rushed into a battle he wasn't ready for, it would be Dino's fault. Sure, nobody would ever blame him, Tsuna least of all, but he would still feel the guilt, twice as heavy because it was Kyouya. His precious Kyouya.

Not that Kyouya belonged to him, or anyone, he reminded himself as he browsed through the papers reporting Kyouya's movements until then. There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to his appearances, though for now he had at least stuck to only attacking families or groups that were hostile towards Vongola. If he decided to attack an ally instead, not being able to find him would be the least of their worries.

Kyouya was moving fast, he mused as he took note of the locations. Though he was staying within a somewhat limited geographical area, he was switching towns at a rapid rate. It wasn't like he was going to run out of targets any time soon. Any mafia organisation would have at least some activity in these parts of Italy, if not their headquarters. That was far too many potential targets for them to monitor them all to any reliable extent, not without drawing more hostile feelings.

Some of his men had already been wondering aloud why they were getting involved in what should have been an internal matter of Vongola. Sure, they had better resources, but Kyouya was still a Vongola Guardian with no direct association with Cavallone. Dino had silenced such talk by pointing out that he indeed considered Kyouya his personal responsibility. After that, there had been no protests. Oh, he was sure some of them disagreed still, but at least they respected him enough not to question his decisions. Not aloud.

They had to find Kyouya.

"Boss!" The frantic tone drew his attention to the man bursting through the door. "Boss, we have located an ongoing battle near the Toccelli headquarters!"

"Kyouya," Dino breathed, a swear as much as a prayer. Toccelli. The family's headquarters wasn't that far, just in next town in fact, but given the territory lines it could have just as well been on the moon. They had been taking more aggressive steps as of late, threatening the Vongola. However, they had managed to stay somewhat neutral with the rest of the alliance; as long as they did not declare open war, Cavallone and the rest couldn't get involved.

There would be no need for them to get involved if Kyouya wiped off the entire family.

"What are we going to do, Boss?" one of his lieutenants asked. "It's deep in Toccelli territory. We can't just run there as we please or we'll be in the middle of a full-blown war."

Dino ran through the facts in his mind even as more reports rushed in, all indicating increasing activity in the Toccelli area. It was clear there was a battle going on, and even clearer that the one involved in said battle was Kyouya. Trust his stubborn student to take on an entire family's forces all by himself.

Except... it had to be too much even for Kyouya. He was stronger than anyone else, yes, but he was also just one man.

"As a family, Cavallone will stay out of this." He ignored the various surprised reactions across the room. "We have faced no open hostilities from Toccelli, and we will not be the ones to start a battle. Cavallone hasn't come this far by instigating pointless wars of aggression."

"Then what are we going to do?" asked Romario. "Are we going to leave him to his own devices?" The gaze he gave Dino made it clear he did not expect this from the boss.

"'We' are not doing anything," Dino said, his tone firm even as he stood up from his desk. "I, however... will go."

"Boss?" Romario frowned even as Dino walked up to him. "What are you planning to do?"

"This." Drawing the seal ring from his hand, he placed it on Romario's palm. "Until I return, Romario, you are in charge. And if I do not return... you know where my will is."

Even Romario seemed to hesitate, until he nodded at last. "I don't like this, Boss, but as you wish."

"What of the hostilities?" another lieutenant asked. "We can't afford to provoke Toccelli!"

"That's why I will not be going as Don Cavallone," Dino replied, marching through the room. Everyone gave way, none daring to challenge his determination. "Any help I may give Kyouya... will come from his tutor, not an allied don." Semantics, some might have claimed, but then that was what mattered in the mafia. Appearances and intentions were at least as important as the actions themselves.

"I'll get a car to take you to the nearest neutral border," Romario said. "After that, you're on your own."

"I won't be on my own, Romario." Dino couldn't help but give him a faint grin. "Kyouya will be there." At least he hoped so with his entire heart.

The car ride seemed to take forever. Romario sat beside him, monitoring calls from the headquarters all the time. It was somewhat depressing, Dino decided, that the best he could hope for was continued reports of battle. After all, such reports meant that Kyouya was still there and on his feet. That was all he wanted to know.

At the border of the Toccelli territory, Romario gave him one last gaze as though to ask if he was sure. Dino met his gaze without any doubt in his mind. Yes, he was going to do this, because it was the right thing to do. The only thing he could do.

Romario nodded, murmuring a quick wish of good luck before the car turned around, leaving Dino on his own. Oh, he had no doubt there would be several of his men in the vicinity, but none of them would follow him beyond this point. Not that he needed them. He only needed Kyouya.

Making his way towards the reported site of battle at a brisk pace, he broke into a run as his ears caught the echo of sounds of battle. He couldn't be very far, he concluded. His instincts were screaming at him, telling him to be ware, look out, there were enemies at every side he had to look out for himself. As though he hadn't known as much anyway.

He got a better vantage point than he had even hoped for, he noted as he came to a small square in the middle of the maze of houses, looking over a larger one a bit lower, a few staircases and sloping streets connecting the various levels of the town. The larger square was now full of noise and people alike, with flashes of flame and sounds of metal filling his senses. His eyes scanned the ever-moving crowd, trying to find that one figure, that one important person who was bound to be there, in the heart of all the noise and aggression.

At last his eyes found him, the lithe figure in black, not still for a single moment as Kyouya attacked and countered and blocked and attacked again, surrounded by enemies from every side. Even from this far away, Dino could tell who it was. Nobody else could move with that much grace and refinement even in the throes of rage and bloodlust.

"Kyouya!" he cried out, well aware that the young man wouldn't hear him over the noise of the battle. Indeed, there was no reaction from his student, no indication whatsoever that he was even aware of Dino's presence.

"He's bitten off more than he can chew at last." The sound of a familiar voice close by made him spin around on his heels. Reborn sat on a nearby stretch of stone wall, watching the battle. He appeared to have no intention of interfering.

"You," Dino breathed. "I should have known. I did wonder how he knew who and where he could attack without causing a scandal." One of the problems with Kyouya's attitude was that he considered everyone an equal enemy, never stopping to think about the possible consequences to those other people perceived as his allies. After all, in his opinion, he worked alone. That just meant that to pick acceptable targets, he needed someone else to tell him who he should not attack.

"He asked me a question, and I answered it," Reborn said with his usual blithe tone. "What he does with the information is his own business."

"You knew what he would do," Dino accused. "You knew and you never tried to stop him, or tell anyone else about his plans."

"This is something he needed to do," Reborn said, bouncing off the wall to stand beside Dino. He was small, Dino noted. Very small for someone who toyed with other people's lives with such ease. "The goal is his, I just gave him the means to an end."

"And the reason he is so exhausted?"

"Toccelli had more men at hand than either of us had anticipated." Reborn shrugged. "It happens. You take a risk, and sometimes you lose."

"So it never crossed your mind to go and help him?" Dino gritted his teeth. He knew better than to attack Reborn, but at the moment he was very much tempted to.

"If he cannot handle this on his own, he is better off gone," Reborn replied. "Vongola doesn't need weak guardians who need to be saved from their own quarrels."

"This isn't his quarrel, though," Dino pointed out, glaring at the so-called baby. "This is a battle you led him to, knowing full well what would happen. If something happens to him, it'll be your responsibility."

"Sometimes students cannot grow if you don't let them fight their way out of something." A smirk, directed at Dino. "You should know."

"The thing I don't know is how either Tsuna or I survived your methods as long as we have." Dino shook his head, stepping forward. "I'm going to help him."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The baby looked smug. He always did when he assumed he knew something better than someone else, which was quite often.

"And why not?" Dino threw a glare at his old tutor.

"Even if you wanted to go and rescue him, you can't," Reborn said with a serious tone, though the smirk was still there. "You'll only be more trouble than help to him right now. Without your family around, you can't even hope to help him."

Dino paused, flexing his whip between his hands as his eyes went out to the battle. Kyouya's movements were getting slower. Not much, mind, but enough to indicate that he was growing tired. "That's not true, though, is it?"

"Of course it's true." The same smug tone as ever hidden behind the mockery of concern. "You need your family around to be even borderline competent, after all."

"Ah, but I don't. Not anymore." Dino shook his head. "But then, in reality I never needed them, did I? You just let me think I did. You could have just cured me of my clumsiness without much trouble, but it was easier to condition me to always keep my subordinates close lest I injure myself. After all, that way I was forced to take on the role of the don whether I liked it or not." It all made sense now that he said it aloud. Why sometimes he could do things he shouldn't have been able to do, and at other times stumbled even when his men walked up to him. It was just mental conditioning for overcoming his problem, not some magical power of family bonds.

Reborn didn't say anything, didn't admit, didn't deny. However, Dino could see the small smirk still on his face even without turning to look.

"I know why you did that," he said with a quiet tone. "I don't approve of it, but I do know why. You did what you thought necessary at the time. However, it's about time for me to step further than the limits you have set."

"Are you sure you want to take the risk?" Did the Arcobaleno actually dare ask him that? "Say you're wrong about how much you can do. You go out there and get both yourself and him killed. Your family will fall apart. Is that what you want?"

"This isn't about that." Dino gave him a cool glance. "This isn't about my family or Cavallone. This is about my student, my student who is in trouble. As his tutor, it is my responsibility to get him out of it." He shook his head. "Just because you prefer to leave your students to their own devices and watch them either win or die doesn't mean we all have to follow your example."

"He got himself into this trouble," Reborn pointed out with perfect calmness. Did nothing ever shake him? "If he can't get out of it, he brought it upon himself. Leave him."

"I can't do that." Hell, why didn't Reborn just ask him to cut off his own head? It would have been much more plausible a task. "Not only is he my precious student... he is also my very important person."

"He would hate to hear that." Smirk. "He'll think you're a useless herbivore."

"Perhaps so," Dino admitted with ease. He knew Kyouya's attitude all too well, after all. "However, that doesn't matter now. What matters is that I can't allow him to get hurt while I just stand by and watch." Taking a firmer grip of his whip, he looked at Reborn. "I'm going now. If you have any sense left, you'll be gone before I'm back."

There was no response to his words. Reborn just lowered his hat a bit, chuckling.

Dino paid him no more mind. He was done with paying any attention to Reborn's opinions or actions, now or ever. All he cared about was going to Kyouya's aid.

It was rather easy, cutting into the crowd of Toccelli men. They had never expected an attack from behind, and by the time they realized they were not against a single enemy anymore, Dino had already made his way deep into their rows. He reached Kyouya within moments, giving him a quick glance to check for injuries before turning towards their opponents again. There weren't visible injuries on his student, he noted to his great relief, though it was clear Kyouya was tired. If the battle drew on much longer, he wouldn't be able to avoid harm. Ah, well. Now that Dino was here as well, they would be able to finish the battle soon.

"Hello, Kyouya," he said with a grin. Somehow, it was very easy to grin now that he had reached Kyouya. Nothing could go wrong anymore, he was sure about that. "I thought I'd drop by to give you a hand."

Kyouya threw him a glare before striking a tonfa at some foolish man's skull. There was a rather unpleasant sound before the unfortunate man in question crumbled to the ground, unmoving as another one stepped to take his place. "I don't need you, Cavallone."

"I know that." Of course he knew. He'd been told that often enough. "But I need you, Kyouya. Besides, you're my student, so I can't just let you die. I wouldn't want anyone to think I haven't taught you well enough," he added with a light tone. He quite hoped it would distract Kyouya from the admission that had slipped from his tongue with far too much ease.

There was silence, for a moment, on Kyouya's part anyway. The battle was still quite noisy around them, making Dino strain his ears in case Kyouya was just speaking with a low tone. Then Dino heard the response at last. "Do not get in my way or I'll bite you to death."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Kyouya." He smirked, cutting down another idiot with his whip. "Let's do this."

There was no response aside from the quiet click of Kyouya's tonfas as he extended the chains at their ends, rushing forward into the enemies. Dino shook his head, smiling to himself as he likewise switched to offensive mode.

There were vague memories dancing in the back of his mind as he cut into the sea of enemies. Memories of being surrounded, quite like this, fighting against insurmountable odds. The feeling of his whip in his hand, this particular whip for the first time ever, still unfamiliar yet following his slightest intentions as though it were an extension of his own arm. It had been the toughest fight of his life up to that moment. One of the toughest he had ever fought, in fact, before or since.

And he had been alone. All alone, because that was the only way he would find his strength. Win alone, or fail and fall. Those had been his options, with nothing in between. Reborn's training methods had not changed much over the years.

Good thing he was not Reborn, he thought with a grim expression. Though Kyouya seemed more energetic now, there was no way he could have finished the battle on his own. Now, though, Dino was there to fight with him. Dino would have his back, whether Kyouya wanted him to or not.

The crowd around them grew thin as he fought, men either slain or fleeing at the sight of others biting it. Some of those fleeing were headed for the Toccelli headquarters, Dino concluded, sharing this with Kyouya. His student gave no indication of hearing him, but he knew Kyouya had received the word. If he knew Kyouya at all, the brat was now cursing Dino for pointing out something so obvious, having already figured it out for himself.

If his faith in Kyouya's abilities had not been quite enough, Dino got his proof as Kyouya started moving towards the headquarters proper. Dino stayed on the square, quite busy with the opponents as well as unwilling to follow even if he had been able to detach himself from the battle. Chances were he could explain getting involved in a battle beside his student, and was certain to get away with defending himself when the opponents decided he was just as much of a threat as Kyouya. A direct assault to the headquarters would have been another thing, though. He had no open hostilities with Toccelli, and no amount of explanations would allow him a direct attack, regardless of whether he did it as Don Cavallone or not.

At the moment all he could do for Kyouya was tie up and take down as many of the Toccelli men as he could manage, giving his student more of an opening for the actual strike. It wasn't much, but it was all he could manage right now.

He had faith in Kyouya. That didn't mean he was just going to withdraw and let every single enemy pile up on him instead. There was a certain difference between trust and neglect.

Each second he spent unable to locate Kyouya from the corner of his eye felt like an eternity, making him quite unable to take any guess at how much time passed in reality. Therefore he could only conclude it was some time later as a loud noise drew the attention of everyone on the battlefield, himself included. The shape of large, sharp spikes reached towards the sky from behind the buildings, not very far from the square. Dino spied a small flicker of purple flame among the cloud of dust and smoke spreading up.

Well. So much for the Toccelli headquarters, and for anyone unfortunate enough to be stuck inside the building.

Staring though they were at the evidence of carnage, none of them were quite blind enough to miss the dark silhouette walking to sight on the roof of one of the buildings lining the square in the direction of the Toccelli. Dino almost cried out to Kyouya, but held himself back. It was obvious his precious student was still in one piece. That was quite enough for him for now, until they finished the battle.

Then Kyouya leapt off the roof, and Dino couldn't help but gasp.

For one fleeting, breathtaking moment, Kyouya seemed to draw the perfect silhouette of his namesake on the sky above; the long coat billowing about him traced the outline of a tail, the trail of steel chains by his sides giving the impression of wings spread in flight. It was, Dino found himself thinking, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Then he descended, a god of death raining vengeance upon his enemies, and by the time Dino's heart consented to beat again he found himself standing alone above what had a moment earlier been a battlefield, now scattered with the fallen bodies of the Toccelli men.

"All done, then?" he asked with forced lightness in his tone as soon as he caught his breath again.

"Yes," Kyouya said, a hint of smirk on his lips as he took a few steps towards Dino, his hair a mess, dust and blood staining his clothes and face, the fire in his eyes making him more beautiful than ever. "All done."

It was a good thing he wasn't very far, because now Dino managed to catch him in time as he began to fall.

Nobody was supposed to be there, not any of his men at least, but either they had snuck in earlier or been waiting right alongside the border for the sign of the end of Toccelli. Either way, Dino found himself surrounded by familiar faces in an instant, Cavallone men and Vongola, too, starting a clean-up and checking for survivors and first of all busying themselves with getting Dino and Kyouya out of there. They both had wounds to treat, Romario noted the moment he saw the two, and don't you dare protest Boss we have enough men to have you both patched up at the same time. Even then, Dino refused to let Kyouya out of his sight. The little brat had been gone for long enough.

There was no sight of Reborn, even as they were escorted back to familiar territory, Tsuna rushing to greet them as they reached Cavallone headquarters, having been informed of their clue towards Kyouya's location. It was all for the better, Dino decided. He wasn't sure he could have held himself back if he'd caught sight of the smug little face.

He had no reason to respect Reborn. He was not his student anymore.

The men were talking already, he noted, catching a word here, another there. There were comparisons to the battle where Dino had gained his own name, the one that had made him Bucking Horse. Dino was tempted to speak up, to point out the differences, but held himself back. However angry he was with Reborn, there was no reason to distress Tsuna right now.

If he'd needed any more proof that some of his men had made it to Toccelli territory before the end of the battle, he knew it beyond a shadow of doubt when he heard the same name passed ahead again and again. That was how such names were born, after all. Someone said it first, and it spread, and by the time Kyouya woke up it would be as established as Dino's was.

Steel Skylark. It was good, Dino mused. Fitting for Kyouya. One hoped Kyouya would approve of it, lest he feel the urge to leave on another unexpected independent mission before he had even recovered from his injuries this time.

At least, if he was going to go, he'd better take Dino along.

Kyouya was his precious student, after all.


End file.
